Opportunity

Opportunity Rover

Opportunity is Spirits twin and landed on the opposite side of Mars. It landed on 25th January 2004 and since then has travelled more than 25 km. The rover narrowly survived dust-storms in 2007. Opportunity actually missed its target when landing. But as luck would have it, it landed in a crater allowing scientists to take samples from inside. NASA Scientists were so excited about landing in a crater that they called the landing a “hole in one.”

In April 2005 Opportunity got stuck in a sand dune. Moving it just a few centimetres at a time Opportunity was eventually freed in June of that year.

Meteorite found by Opportunity

Opportunity found a meteorite; the first ever found on another planet and has visited and photographed numerous craters.

Opportunity is now making its way to a large crater called Endeavour. Because of the great distance from Earth to Mars driving is not an easy task. The driver here on Earth has to be careful because every move they make can take a while to reach the rover so all routes have to be carefully planned. It also makes frequent stops to take photographs and gather samples.